Is religion one of the world’s problems?…ask the rabbi

Rabbi Raymond Apple served for 32 years as the chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious congregation. and now lives in Jerusalem. He proffers his answer…

Rabbi Raymond Apple

BLAMING RELIGION

Q. Are people right to blame religion for the world’s problems?

A. Religion is not blameless. Its proponents need to identify the constructive elements in religious tradition and make them the agenda.

Not that governments will like it if religion says it has some solutions to offer: the politicians will tell religion to keep its nose out. Unfortunately the politicians have not done such a great job themselves and there are some who pretend to be pursuing just and lasting solutions when the main things they want are re-election and personal immortality.

We must however acknowledge that antagonism to religion working at the coal face is partly caused by the Western doctrine that religion is a private matter, an affair of the individual soul and its God.

Religion – certainly Judaism – needs to explain that its role was always public as well as private. Abraham, Moses and the prophets had something to say to the world, not just to the individual soul.

So in a world beset with problems that range from inter-group relations to shortage of resources, climate change, economic downturn, ageing populations and lack of opportunity, religion has to speak out and put forward its ideas.

This does not necessarily mean that every religion and every group within a religion will say the same things, nor that the public has to abdicate its judgment and do exactly what a particular religion or religious leader says.

The greatest contribution that religion can make is to explain its spiritual-ethical take on a given subject and work (rationally) to convince public figures and the public that it is right.

3 STEPS BACKWARDS

Q. At the end of the Amidah why do we take three steps backwards?

A. Four explanations are offered by “Rite and Reason” by Shmuel Pinchas Gelbard:

1. According to the Midrash, Moses passed through three levels when he ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Torah: darkness, clouds, and deep blackness. When he descended he went through the same levels. When completing our Amidah we too take three steps backwards.

2. When the Torah was given, the people retreated three measures of distance from the mountain, as the verse says, “And the people stood afar” (Ex. 20:21).

3. Where one prays becomes sacred space. Upon concluding the prayer the person concerned emerges from this sanctified realm and returns to mundane reality.

4. Prayer corresponds to the three daily offerings. When a kohen climbed the ramp up to the altar he ascended on the right and descended on the left. Between the top of the ramp and the altar were three steps on which the kohen stepped backwards when he left.

THE KOHEN COMES FIRST

Q. Why does the kohen comes first in the call-ups to the Torah?

A. Originally there must have been a scramble for first place. Then an enactment (“takkanah”) made in Talmudic times determined that for the sake of communal harmony the first place should be given to a kohen and the second to a levi (Gittin 59a).

The pre-eminence of the kohen is because of the Biblical command to honour him – “v’kiddashto” (Lev. 21:8).

In some communities there was a custom on Shabbat B’reshit to give the first call-up to a generous person who sponsored “ner lama’or”, the oil lighting for the synagogue, for the whole year. This usage began with the agreement of the whole community including the kohanim, which shows that the kohen’s place is determined by established custom, and the custom can be varied if really necessary.

It is customary in some congregations for the rabbi to be given the first call-up as a mark of honour to the Torah.

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